Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Best Legal Structure for CoHo

[Mark Frauenglass (WORKGROUP/MAILDATA/Mark%Acquilano_Leslie_Inc+p]

>Hello,  we at the Charlottesville,VA Co-Housing group would like advice on
>the best way to legally structure our cohousing project.  We are aware of a
>number of ways, but which is best?
>1) Cooperative
>2) Joint Corporation
>3) Joint Venture/Limited partnership
>4) Condominium

Tony, I thought I'd mention that Highline Crossing is structured as a
condominium, but not by our choice.  We designed some 1 bedroom units that
were stacked; a handicapped accessible unit on the main floor and a 1
bedroom walk-up above.  This forced us into 'condo' rather than 'townhome',
since townhomes MUST own the land they sit on, which stacked units obviously
can't do.  It's easier in some respects - we didn't have to re-plat the land
to show parcels for each unit which can save months, and common facilities
are 'owned' by the Homeowners Association.  All of our roofs and building
exteriors are insured/repaired by the HA, so no one person has to pay for
their new roof if damaged in one of Colorado's vicious hailstorms.
It's working out OK for us, but I'm not an expert in this sort of thing or
what benefits other structures can offer.

the Frauenglass of Highline Crossing,
Mark%724-9482 [at] mcimail.com